A blue and white documentary porcelain inkstone


Dated to 1621 and of the periodOf cylindrical form, painted on the sides with flowers in four lobed cartouches among brocade-motifs, the unglazed concave ink palette on the top circled by a ringed depression, underglaze blue inscription on the base reading 'Wanli siqinian Xiong Bing zhiyong mengxiayue jidan'. 9.5cm (3 3/4in) diam.
|明萬曆四十七年（公元1621年） 青花錦地開光花卉紋硯台青花「萬曆四柒年熊昺置用孟夏月吉旦」楷書銘文The inscription can be translated as 'On the first day of April in the forty seventh year of the Wanli emperor's reign (1621), commissioned and used by Xiong Bing. Compare with a related blue-and-white porcelain inkstone, 1591, in the Percival David Collection at the British Museum, illustrated by M.Medley in Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains, London, 1976, pl.VIII, A673.